Weekly Short Stories Contest and Company! discussion
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Haiku
Interesting. Sounds like something that is in-line with Dims Hall. Thanks for the extra information. Now it will be a bit more of a challenge to get.
Here it is:Hoff, Benjamin. The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow: The Rediscovered Diary of Opal Whiteley New York: Tichnor & Fields, 1986.
I’ll be curious to know your thoughts on whether the image of Opal that haunted Hoff--the image that developed in his mind because of the magic her words worked on him and because of the past she was a part of, seen through a late-twentieth-century imagination--worked as a projection carrier for him, a femme fatale of sorts. In a more recent book, Kathrine Beck writes:
“. . . Hoff outlined a theory of impending ecological doom, revealed by changing migration patterns of animals, climate change, volcanic activity, and changes in ocean currents . . . and said it was possible that ‘we have little time left.’ . . . The version of The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow currently in print eliminates this ecological warning, and some of the other personal material seems less emotionally fraught. . . .
“Hoff believes that the diary was an authentic product of childhood, but that Opal was schizophrenic . . .. A professor at the University of Oregon . . . had told me that Benjamin Hoff was in love with Opal, an impression I had also received from reading his book. I asked him if he had fallen in love with her. ‘I would say so,’ he replied matter-of-factly. ‘Maybe not in the usual way. Spiritually maybe. . . .’” (Pages 248-249.)
Beck, Kathrine. Opal: A Life of Enchantment, Mystery, and Madness. New York: Viking, 2003.
Her tea was alwaysfreshly brewed, her musings tucked
away in her snood;
gold earrings, rings on
her toes, and her husband had
a ring in his nose.
A fashion statementtill a freak accident robs
him--gasp!--of his nose
He couldn’t affordsurgery. When he comes home,
the terrier barks.
He picked up a nose
at the dimestore, and now he
looks like Groucho Marx.
I hit the wall withMy hand. It hurts so, so much.
The surgery sucks.
It's really a shameThe doctor doesn't even
Know what he's doing
Who on Earth gave him
His so-called master's degree?
He's using a knife!
“I know just what willdo the trick,” said Dr. Blud.
“Hand me that ice pick.”
"Doc, I think I'm ill.""So? What do you expect me
To do about it?"
The less you know, themore certain you are. It’s a
happy way to be.
With uncertainty
comes a know-it-all patient
and a framed M.D.
Ignorant, yet glad:the Zen of a true patient
although still in pain.
Pain is a messageThat you can choose to accept
Or choose to deny.
I deny pain withremarkable flair, then leap
from the dentist’s chair.
M wrote: "The less you know, themore certain you are. It’s a
happy way to be.
With uncertainty
comes a know-it-all patient
and a framed M.D."
M, this is brilliant! LoL!
It was in my assThat the big pain came to pass
From the pretty lass.
My stomach hurtsTwists in pain from this laughing
I blame all of you
Said the old master "The best medicine? Laughter!"
"...Good health thereafter."
The laughter makes meneed a doc to get the jig-
gles from my belly!
Then all my jigglescame up at once, with chewed toast
and mayhaw jelly.
When she saw the messon her shoes, she sang the high
heels and vomit blues.
LoL! Nice way to start my work day M & Al.
Wow, Alex! Three rhymes in one verse. Let’s see if I can follow that.He slipped on a bun
and his suit pants came undone
as he wildly spun.
He hadn’t time tocount the cost of all he’d lost
now that he’d been tossed.
Before being tossed He'd thought he'd learnt that having
was just to let go.
He had never thought
what it might mean to his wife
to be the one freed.
Frank could not win, norcould he lose, as Alex’s
loved and hated muse,
for though she was quick
with taunts and mirth, she could not
make him doubt his worth.
Her ambivalencewas what made a muse become
all but frank with her.
Her frankness became
to him an ambivalence
that left him wanting.
Driven almost todistraction by his lush hair
and peppermint breath,
She made it look like
she wanted action, then teased
him nearly to death.
Alex (Al) wrote: "Nice work boys! I haven't time to reply, M, but I will later. My sister wants an all nighter, so it's horror movies, popcorn, Hamlet acting and weirdness time."So Al, what exactly is 'Hamlet acting'? Into my mind popped a couple of images, but nothing that conveyed an understanding of what you might mean.
It's the peppermintthat gives the paddies their edge —
hair is the bonus.
But it's in their eyes
that the leprechaun dances
to leave them panting.
Alex (Al) wrote: "Hamlet acting, Guy, is when my sister and I grab Hamlet off the bookshelf and act out scenes together. It's quite fun! You should see how Han does Polonious or however his name's spelled. It's hila..."Next time, set up the digital movie camera and upload them to Youtube, because that sounds like fun. I'd love to see you and Han do Polonius and Laertes! 'Neither a lender nor borrower be' etc.
I seem to want to apologize for how my Haiku made you feel, but I am not sure it that would be appropriate or not. LoL!
I don’t know that painting, but I’d recognize the style and Pre-Raphaelite colors of J. W. Waterhouse anywhere.
And I thought it was two girls acting Hamlet.
Hamlet's '...get you to a nunnery' scene with Ophelia; or perhaps the gravedigger's scene.Have you seen the Kenneth Branagh movie version?
“Wench,“ Dr. Putnampointed, “get thee--“ (shaking, he
was looking his worst)
“you know,” he spluttered,
“to a nunnery--but let
me open one first.”
Thank you, Alex! I think this may be my favorite thread.
Al, inappropriate Haiku in this thread is just about de rigeur! LoL.
A portly nun knocked atthe carved door, and told Frank she
was Sister Babbitt.
Not amused, he glared
at her and swore and told her
to kick the habit.
“You’ve set yourself up
a harem,” she spat. “I’ve heard
you’re a humdinger!”
She softened, “I might
stay for a chat, if you would
make me a stinger.”
Alex (Al) wrote: "LOLOkay, if you insist.
The opening of
'Nun no More' had brought in young,
supple girls that made
the owner beam las-
civiously. "Get thee," he
said deviously,
to each one of the
girls as h..."
Al, this is RotFL! And I thought you said you had writer's block?! LoL.
And M, what a brilliant follow-up. Still laughing.
And then there were nunstippling the too tall cocktails
disguised with red bras.
'Hum me a few bars!'
cried the player piano
from the pre-punched roll.
He traded zingers
with the singers' cold stingers
ogling the ringers.
After adjusting
their expectations of truth
God was everywhere.
Guy, yours is spectacular--what a scene it sets! It will be hard to follow.As Sister Babbitt
relaxed, commenting on the
oriental rugs,
letting her hair down,
she waxed loquacious, her prim
sips turning to slugs.
The other nuns, soon
sorely taxed to show restraint,
seemed wild-eyed, on drugs,
and shed their habits,
their modesty axed. “Girls, take
a look
“--at this encyclopedia somebody brought.”
(Sorry. I got carried away. Meanwhile, back at the abbey.)
The abbess frowned. “I’m
concerned. How shall the sisters
fight acedia?”
The abbot smiled. “I’ve
learned they’ve been browsing an en-
cyclopedia.”
M, yours is very funny. No, yours is hilarious! That you are able to rhyme your 'Haiku' so perfectly is truly amazing.Al, have fun with the sitting.
Here's my weak at-work response.
When Sister Babbit
saw Sister Bobbit they both
unsheathed their honed knives.
They eyed the Bishop
who was dressed in drag with his
hands on the nun's thighs
and his eyes ogling
her vivacious unbound chest
while she faked soft sighs.
Weekly Short Stories Contest and Company!
Books mentioned in this topic
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Invisible Cities (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
David Payne (other topics)Thomas Merton (other topics)
Robert Payne (other topics)
Barbara Gowdy (other topics)
David K. Reynolds (other topics)
I came across the book at a Salvation Army store years ago, and luckily the version I got was the original. I think it was published by Tichnor & Fields. I had never read anything like it. It’s really a love story, though a very strange one that isn’t related as such, in which Hoff falls in love with a young woman from the past because of the spell her writing casts on him--specifically, the diary she had kept when she was a little girl.